By: Gregory Brown, MD/PhD Candidate
With a new decade upon us, many people are setting goals. But setting the goal is not the difficult part. Even the most earnest of intentions often turns to ambivalence and then apathy after a few short weeks. Here are a few tips to maintain your spirit and achieve your goals in the new year.
1. Write goals down
Writing down your goals is the first step in formalizing them. How can you achieve something if you are not even sure what the goal is? The best goals are SMART goals, an acronym for clearly defining the goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. A super clear goal gives you a target to hit. For example, instead of making your goal to be healthier, make it to eat two salads a week for the next 3 months. Salads are a specific healthy food (admittedly, you can make salads unhealthy, but we are focusing on goals right now). Eating two is a measurable number. The goal is achievable and relevant to a healthy life-style, and setting the three-month time frame ensures this is not some ambiguous indefinite journey. Once you begin a lifestyle for three months, it will be easier to stick to it.
2. Clarify your motives
Goals are much easier to stick to if we are passionate about them at our core. People often say if you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life. Although an exaggeration, the idea is that picking things that mesh with our core values are easier for us to accomplish. Is our goal something that someone else says we should do, perhaps quitting a vice? Until we recognize our motives, we will never have the same vigor in achieving the goal.
3. Make it realistic
This is briefly mentioned in the S.M.A.R.T. goals, but it is so important I wanted to mention it again. The goal has to be realistic, otherwise you will probably not achieve it. Setting a practical goal makes you more likely from day one to set about doing it, and the thrill from reaching your goal will drive you to accomplish more goals. I know that if you shoot for the moon and miss, you will land amongst the stars. But that takes your head out of the game right from the start. Why would you be motivated to keep trying at a task you know you’ll never complete.
4. Have a plan
Fail to plan, plan to fail. Going about any task without a clear idea of how to execute will lead to inefficiencies and less follow-though. If you do not have a plan, how will you know when you’ve deviated from the plan? Then you will continue to make small compromises until you have completely lost sight of your goal. Building a plan is effectively breaking up the larger goal into smaller goals. Each step is a mini-SMART goal. And then all the steps together form the path toward accomplishing a major goal.
5. Maintain Accountability
Goals are easier to achieve when you are accountable. Have you ever wondered where you got a burst of energy from before a deadline? That is because something is going to hold you accountable for accomplishing the task, whether it is a boss or a teacher or a loved one. Usually some external entity provides accountability; we all naturally feel an urge to not let others down. This can be as simple as telling people of your goals, particularly people you respect. Another method is to start posting to social media. You won’t want to let you fans down, even if your only fan is your Mom.
Goals are tough, and we do not always achieve them. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. And a few simple tricks can set us up for success. Then you will be all jazzed up to tackle more and more goals, and next thing you know you’ve developed a growth mindset.